RWA’s Recent Implosion Sparked by Deep-Rooted Issues of Racism and Diversity

Conflict over ethics, diversity, marginalization, privilege, and “polite” discourse have prompted tumult and mass exodus from RWA—as well as cancellation of the 2020 RITA contest

We can say one thing with certainty: when nine Romance Writers of America board members and the former president resigned from the organization over the holidays, it was about much more than just one member’s criticism of another member’s book on social media. But those details mainly drove headlines and coverage in the major media—everywhere from The New York Times to the Associated Press to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rather than rehash exactly what happened last month, we’ll point you to the most efficient and straightforward accounting of the key incidents at All About Romance by Lynn Spencer. For a full and exhaustive timeline of everything that’s happened, updated daily, see The Implosion of the RWA by Claire Ryan.

But what do you really need to know here? We believe the particulars of the current situation symbolize a much larger challenge faced by the RWA for decades. You can get a sense of this context and deep history from two worthwhile long reads.

The first is The Guardian’s investigative piece from last April, Fifty Shades of White by Lois Beckett. As the piece intricately explores, the romance industry has been grappling with a range of diversity issues, including: (1) Black romance authors have often been confined to all-black lines, marketed only to black readers, and shelved separately from white romances. (2) The industry’s most prestigious awards, the RITAs, are dominated by white authors and characters, with black authors representing less than 0.5 percent of RITA finalists since its inception.

This in part arises from RWA’s membership: of 10,000 members, more than 80 percent are white. During the era of Trump, leaders in the organization began to launch a serious effort to address racism and diversity. Figures like Courtney Milan, pushing for change, have upset members who would like RWA to address diversity in a “civil” way and without being overtly political.

That brings us to the second long read, My POV on RWA at romance novelist Nora Roberts’s blog. She joined RWA in 1980 and attended the first conference in 1981 but is no longer a member. She says that she didn’t take notice of marginalization in the organization until around 2005, when the leadership crafted a statement defining romance as one man/one woman. “A great many members were outraged by it—as they should have been. I certainly was. … [I]t’s fine to have a character fall in love with a freaking vampire, but not someone of the same sex? … That was a real crack in the wall for me and left me disappointed and angry with the organization,” Roberts writes.

So what’s the latest? A growing number of statements and petitions have demanded that current RWA president Damon Suede, as well as other organization leaders, be removed for varied reasons. A long list of literary agents have written and signed a letter refusing to be involved with any RWA events until leadership changes and audits occur. People who agreed to judge the RITA awards have announced they won’t, and entrants have withdrawn their work; as a result, RWA decided to cancel the 2020 RITA contest.

In a bizarre twist, the author whose complaint led to the current situation now says her complaint was not accurate, that she was encouraged by RWA to file it, and as a result she feels “used” by the organization to secure a political outcome she did not intend.

This morning, Harlequin and Avon Books (both owned by HarperCollins) released statements confirming their commitment to diversity and inclusion and revoking their sponsorship of the RWA2020 national conference. In a missive to authors, Harlequin said, “We will reevaluate our participation for 2021 as the organization works with its members to address concerns.”

Bottom line: Prompted by recent events at the RWA, science fiction and fantasy author Cat Rambo has written about similar challenges faced by the Science Fiction Writers of America. What’s happening at the RWA is not an isolated event, and—as Rambo eloquently points out—all writers now find themselves at an unsettling and unpredictable moment in publishing as well as history. “Writers are in general seething masses of ego, and this is an understandable, human thing. But it is true. Writers of color, women writers, writers with disabilities, and queer writers have all faced barriers that writers more sheltered by privilege have not, and the ones that have made it in have done so because they were too good to be ignored. Knowing that your place came at someone else’s expense may be difficult to acknowledge.”